have provided much of what we know of Mars, and
will be discussed in their own sections.

In addition, you may want to check out
AeroSpaceGuide. This site has some interesting
facts as well as mission summaries.

Past Missions:

We have sent most of our probes to Mars, the
first of which was
Mariner 4. The first close-up images of Mars are
from the Mariner 4. Launched in November of 1964,
the Mariner 4 flew past Mars in July of 1965. It was
a flyby mission and never entered
orbit.

Mariners 6 and 7 were also flyby missions,
launched only 31 days apart. Launched in early 1969,
the flybys later that year provided more close-up
images and also studies the chemical composition of
the atmosphere.

Mariner 9 was the first Mars orbiter and covered
over 80% by taking over 7,000 images. Weather
patterns on Mars were discovered by this probe and
both moons of Mars were also photographed for the
first time.

17 years after the Viking series, the
Mars Observer was sent to Mars but failed due to
severe electronics failure.

Despite the concerns
over the loss of the Mars Observer, the
Mars Pathfinder mission, launched in 1996, was a
complete success. This probe is a free moving rover,
called Sojourner, to move about the surface while
transmitting information through its home base back
to
Earth. The results of this probe can be found at
the
Mars Pathfinder Science Results Directory.